Write On! Review – 2012 Emmy Nominations

The one thing you can consistently say about the Emmys is that they are never consistent.

Thanks to a rule change, the wildly popular Downton Abbey was moved from the miniseries/TV movie category to the main drama category. This has caused the drama category to completely change, and left some worthy shows such as Justified, The Good Wife, The Walking Dead, and others missing from the drama category.

This isn’t an indictment of Downton Abbey, which will surely go down as one of the all-time great Masterpiece miniseries ever shown on PBS. But every other Masterpiece series, ranging from Upstairs, Downstairs to the current Sherlock, has been listed as a miniseries, not a drama. So the ruling doesn’t make much sense.

Not only that, but the Academy gave the choices to American Horror Story’s producers as to in which category they wanted to submit their show. Of course, they chose miniseries. (Who can blame them, given the drama competition?) The loophole? American Horror Story is recasting all its actors (except Jessica Lange) and changing the setting, so it’s being considered an anthology, not a regular drama.

Meanwhile, the Academy, which usually chooses to honor long-time great series with one final nomination, decided to skip over the likes of Hugh Laurie of FOX’s House and the entire show Rescue Me on FX. (Not a shocker—the Academy has mistakenly ignored Rescue Me for years).

The Academy is also seemingly inconsistent over its own rules. For example, Lead Actress (Comedy) has seven nominees, all deserving. Yet the Academy didn’t choose to add something like Justified to Best Drama, leaving it at six. What gives?

But then, these are the same people who seem to vote certain shows in over and over, which I guess sort of explains how HBO’s Boardwalk Empire keeps getting nominated, while sci-fi/fantasy shows—except Game of Thrones—are largely ignored. The sad thing is, no one even expects a show like Fringe to get even a whiff of a nomination, just because of the Academy’s record in such things.

If the Academy is going to keep changing the rules, it’d be nice if they were changes that made the awards show better and more competitive.

What do you think about this year’s Emmy Nominations?

Read more from The TV Guy.

Check out the 2012 Writing Nominations and all of this years Emmy Nominations.